This invention provides a hydraulic setting tool apparatus and method for drilling operations providing one-trip setting of a cement-retainer assembly and pumping of cement without excessive pulling, pushing, or twisting of the workstring, using hydraulic drilling fluid pressure and internal movement in the tool.
Existing methods of setting cement retainers and pumping cement require variously pulling or pushing with a lot of force on the drill string at the wellhead, or twisting and turning the drill string at the wellhead, in order to transfer those forces to a tool on the workstring. Those operations were developed for traditional drill pipe, where the proper machinery and tools are available at the wellhead, and where the drill pipe can properly transfer those forces down the drill string. With coiled tubing, such pulling, pushing, and twisting operations are not readily performed and are not effective because the coiled tubing will not transfer the forces without significant attenuation and without damage to the coiled tubing.
The prior art does not provide for a hydraulic setting tool that performs any required pulling and pushing internally within the tool, while the tool itself remains stationary.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,826,652 for a “Hydraulic Setting Tool,” issued on Oct. 27, 1998 to assignee Baker Hughes Incorporated, provides for a packer with a setting piston mounted on the body thereof. The packer is hydraulically set prior to treating or cementing, and has a sliding sleeve valve that is open during run-in. After the packer has set, the setting tool is released from the valve. The valve may then be operated through manipulation of the tubing string. The tubing string can be disengaged and reengaged into the packer body to determine if the valve has clocked by measuring the pressure conditions at the surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,490,669 for a “Multi-Zone, Single Trip Well Completion System and Methods of Use,” issued on Feb. 17, 2009 to assignee BJ Services Company, provides for a well completion system for completing two or more separate production zones in a well bore during a single downhole trip. The completion system comprises a completion assembly with two or more production zone assemblies and a completion tool assembly. Each production zone assembly may comprise an automatic system locating assembly and at least two inverted seal systems for sealing against the tool assembly. Further discussed is a formation access valve assembly, or frac window, in a production zone assembly and a crossover assembly in a service tool assembly. The tool assembly comprises a crossover assembly having a through wall port allowing fluid communication from an inside surface of the tool assembly to an outside tool assembly surface. In a preferred embodiment, the through wall port is formed on an angle of between about 45 to 150 degrees, and more preferably about 120 degrees to the tool centerline, a downhole orientation. The crossover assembly also comprises an internal sleeve having a seat surface adjacent the port. In a preferred embodiment, the sealing surface is adapted to seal against a ball or other substantially spherical object that engages the seat. This ball/seat sealing arrangement may be used to activate the setting tool and set the production packer, as is conventional. Located below the seat is a circulation port, which allows circulation from the tool assembly annulus to the inside conduit of the service tool assembly during run in.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,706,342 for a “Packer for Wells,” issued on Dec. 19, 1972 to inventor Brown J. Woolley, provides for a well tool for controlling fluid flow through a well bore. It has particular application in the form of a packer or bridge plug for insertion down through a restriction such as tubing, collapsed casing or the like in a well, and is adapted for expansion to a size sufficient to engage the casing at a point spaced below the restriction. In operation of the tool, it is initially assembled, and thereafter run into the well casing through tubing. Thereafter, the setting tool is actuated, which causes the upper end of the snubber to contact the lower end of the cylinder of the setting tool. The various shear pins in the system then shear in sequence from top to bottom, such that the various parts of the tool are moved axially together and to the expanded position, with slips engaging the internal surface of casing, and with the fingers containing the packer element. The tool is particularly adapted for expanding the packer element to a diameter of at least twice its initial diameter, with minimal axial force. After setting of the tool, thereafter wire line may be raised, which thereby removes the setting tool and piston, which was previously sheared from the mandrel at a shear point during the setting of the tool.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,488,082 for a “Remotely Operated Multi-Zone Packing System,” issued on Dec. 3, 2002 to assignee Halliburton Energy Services Inc., provides for a multi-zone packing system having unique features that allow for remote operation, thereby eliminating the need to raise and lower a work string and crossover tool to various zones of interest during a frac pack, gravel pack, or related completion procedure. The squeeze pack system has a crossover tool or port collocated with each zone of interest and remotely operated closing devices to allow for the setting of each packer and the packing job to be performed with minimal or no movement of the work string. In particular, covered is an apparatus for use in a wellbore, where the apparatus features (a) inner tubing placed within the wellbore; (b) middle tubing attached to the inner tubing, and further containing the lower section of the inner tubing; (c) outer tubing containing and concentric with a portion of the middle tubing; (d) a crossover port for transporting fluid from the inner tubing through the middle tubing; (e) a port on the outer tubing; and (f) a device for controlling the communication of fluid between ones of the inner tubing, the middle tubing, and the outer tubing. The outer tubing may further include a hydraulically set packer, a gravel pack assembly attached to the hydraulically set packer, and a screen attached to the gravel pack assembly. In some embodiments, the packing system provides for the crossover port being controlled by a remotely activated valve, or a circulation valve providing communication between the outer tubing and middle tubing.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,394,180 for a “Frac Plug with Caged Ball,” issued on May 28, 2002 to assignee Halliburton Energy Services, Inc., provides for a downhole tool for sealing a wellbore. The downhole tool includes a packer with a ball seat defined therein. A sealing ball is carried with the packer into the well. The movement of the sealing ball away from the ball seat is limited by a ball cage, which is in turn attached to the upper end of the packer. The ball cage has a plurality of ports therethrough, for allowing flow into the ball cage and through the packer at certain flow rates. A spring is disposed in the longitudinal opening of the packer, and engages the sealing ball to prevent the sealing ball from engaging the ball seat until a predetermined flow rate is reached. When the packer is set in the hole, flow through the frac plug below a predetermined flow rate is permitted. Once a predetermined flow rate in the well is reached, a spring force of the spring will be overcome and the sealing ball will engage the ball seat so that no flow through the frac plug is permitted.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,522,264 for an “Apparatus and Method for Treating Wells,” issued on Jun. 11, 1985 to assignee Otis Engineering Corporation, provides for an apparatus for packing particulates such as sand, gravel, or the like around a well screen in a well, for sand control. The apparatus has provisions for packing the particulates tightly in place without relying on settling due to gravity, thus requiring minimal distance between the packer and the casing perforations. Methods of performing the packing operations are also disclosed. In particular, the apparatus features (a) well packer means, (b) well screen means connected below the packer means, (c) means for providing lateral flow port means between the packer means and the screen means, and (d) a service seal unit tool means, attached to the packer and attachable to a pipe string, where the service seal unit tool means further features (i) tubular body means telescopically engaged in the packer means, (ii) means on the tubular body means sealing both above and below the lateral port means, (iii) tubular wash pipe means extending through the tubular body means and the packer, and having its upper end opening outwardly into the well annulus above the packer while its lower end opens into the screen means, with the wash pipe having a lateral circulation port in its wall communicating with the interior of the screen means, (iv) means sealing between the screen means and the wash pipe below the lateral circulation port, and (v) means initially closing the lateral circulation port, being movable to port-open position automatically when the pressure exterior of the wash pipe exceeds the pressure interior thereof by a predetermined amount.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,050,334 for a “Single Trip Whipstock Assembly,” issued on Apr. 18, 2000 to inventors Bruce McGarian et al., provides for a single trip whipstock assembly that can be run into a well, set, and operated from a window in the wall casing in a single trip. The system includes a milling tool attached to the upper end of a whipstock, to the lower end of which is attached a packer or anchor that can be set by appropriate means prior to detachment of the mill from the whipstock to initiate window formation. The packer may be hydraulic and may be set by means of a setting tool located above the mill and connected to the packer by a hose. The mill incorporates circulation ports that are initially isolated from the central chamber thereof, to permit flow of hydraulic fluid from the setting tool to the hose via the interior of the mill. Once the setting has been effected, the hose is severed, permitting the piston of the setting tool to operate a flow diverter within the mill and open the circulation ports to the interior of the tool for subsequent drilling mud circulation during milling operation. The whipstock includes a relatively steep ramp at the upper end thereof, so that initial breakthrough of the casing is effected predominantly using the side blades of the mill.
Lastly, U.S. Pat. No. 9,085,960 for a “Gravel Pack Bypass Assembly,” issued on Jul. 21, 2015 to assignee Weatherford Technology Holdings, LLC, provides for a gravel pack operation that disposes slurry from an inner string into the annulus around a shoe track. A valve on the shoe track can open and close flow through a port, and seats around the port allow an outlet of the tool to seal with the port. When the valve is open, and the outlet sealed with the port, the slurry in the string is pumped into the borehole around the shoe track by flowing the slurry from the outlet into the borehole through the flow port. As this occurs, gravel collects around the shoe track, and fluid returns in the borehole flow back into the shoe track through a screen disposed toward the track's toe. Once inside the shoe track, the fluid returns communicate through a bypass on the shoe track around the sealed outlet and port. At this point, the fluid returns can pass uphole in the gravel pack assembly.
What is needed is a hydraulic setting tool that can perform any required pulling and pushing internally within the tool, while the tool itself remains stationary.